Digimon Story: Time Stranger Review (PS5) – Digimon Are The Champions

My journey with the Digimon Story series began with Cyber Sleuth and Hacker’s Memory, and I was absolutely hooked. The deep mechanics, the slick gameplay systems, the thrill of raising and battling with my Digimon all clicked in a way that kept me coming back for more. So, when Bandai Namco pulled back the curtain and revealed a brand new entry in the series, Digimon Story: Time Stranger, I could not help but lose it. This is not just another Digimon game. This is the return of one of my favorite RPG series, and the hype is real.

Game Name: Digimon Story: Time Stranger
Platform(s): PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), Xbox Series X|S, PC
Developer(s): Media.Vision Inc.
Publisher(s): Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc.
Release Date: October 2nd, 2025
Price: $69.99

You are an agent of ADAMAS in Digimon Story: Time Stranger. Your role is to investigate anomalies in the world that just so happen to be from Digimon or Electro Phase Life forms, as the game likes to remind you every so often. As you protect a girl from a giant anomaly that destroys the world, you are sent back eight years in time. Your goal is to prevent the end of the world from this event, which is known as the Shinjuku Inferno.

You Are the Time Stranger

Prior to reviewing the game, I had already played the first two hours of Digimon Story: Time Stranger during PAX West 2025 and had documented it in great detail in the preview that is currently up on the website. To not tread on the same water, go check that out before coming back to this full review. After you fall into eight years in the past, you meet a man who is looking for his daughter. His daughter happens to have gone into the sewers. His daughter just happens to be Inori, the girl whom you met at the beginning of the game and tried to protect from all the giant Digimon.

After you save her and her crazy streamer friend Hiroko, the dad asks you to stay with them. Not out of the kindness of his heart, mind you, but because he wants more information on Digimon. Honestly, the most realistic scenario yet in an RPG to have a person ask you to stay in their house. Inori’s house becomes your hub as your Agent explores Shinjuku and tries to figure out how the events from eight years ago led up to the Shinjuku Inferno.

Eventually, as you are with Inori yet again in the sewers, she meets an Elecmon she lovingly calls Coo. After she protects Coo from the bigger Digimon, Coo digivolves into Aegiomon. The Agent starts to be more of a witness to the narrative as the main story focuses on Aegiomon and Inori’s bond. Especially with Inori’s trauma, making it hard for her to let go of loved ones in her life. I think it was a smart choice to center the story on this bond. Especially as more and more things get revealed in the game, that leads to this Shinjuku Inferno. It also adds more layers to the title Time Stranger. This might have some of my favorite twists in a time travel story. I usually worry about using time travel as a gimmick in games, but overall, Digimon Story: Time Stranger does a lot with it in the narrative.

I want to apologize to Digimon fans everywhere, as I stated earlier in my preview, I am more of a fan of the games than the series as a whole. I did watch the first two seasons of Digimon, but dropped off hard afterwards. Yes, it was 13 royal knights and 7 demon lords. Also, I was wrong with the narrative having the 13 royal knights playing an important role. They do have roles to play, but the important roles are from the Olympos XII. In terms of their roles, I will leave that to you to play the game yourself to see. Digimon Story: Time Stranger‘s story and narrative is truly amazing, not just for Digimon but for JRPGs in general. It also changes how you understand dialogue when you do a New Game+ run of the game.

Digimon Story

The mechanics and systems in Digimon Story: Time Stranger have evolved from the previous Digimon Story games. You get Digimon by fighting them and scanning their data into your Digivice. When they have reached 100%, you can convert that data into a Digimon to walk and fight with you. If you wait till the data is maxed out at 200% though, it maximizes their potential. At 200% their max level and their base stats are increased. It is worth waiting for 200% before converting the data, especially if the plan is to Digivolve the Digimon into new and stronger Digimon.

You get an attachment skill pretty early on, but essentially, attachment skills are skills you can attach to your Digimon. They are moves they can perform during combat. You can buy them from the skill shop, you can find them in treasure chests, you can get them from enemy drops, or even from Digimon learning them. You can have your Digimon equipped with up to four of them at a time. It is wise to have different elements in the attachment skills since some enemy Digimon might have resistances toward your main skills.

Digivolution in Digimon Story: Time Stranger is the name of the game in terms of building up your main party. Each Digimon you gather has a Digivolution line that makes it stronger. The base stats change, and the initial level changes. Sometimes, even the max level changes if you are working on building bonds and talent level with your Digimon. The talent level also influences the maximum level that Digimon can reach. You increase the talent level by using the Digimon in combat or just having them in your main party.

This system incentivizes changing your main party frequently so that other Digimon can get the benefits of being in the party. I often have one or two Digimon that stay in my party at all times, but the other four I wasn’t worried about swapping around. I did try to have a balanced party of two of each attribute if I could. Digivolving your Digimon to the max strength required you to focus on your agent skills.

Agent skills are passive abilities you can have on Digimon that fall in line with certain personalities. They can also reduce the required stats you need to digivolve to stronger Digimon. You use anomaly points to learn them from the Agent skills list. This is also where you can enhance or learn more cross-skills. You can do side quests to amass more anomaly points. It is required to use anomaly points to increase your agent rank. The agent rank not only increases the damage from your cross skills and the abilities of your Digimon, but it is also a prerequisite to Digivolutions. I tried to do as many side quests as I possibly could to get more anomaly points.

One of the places you might spend a lot of time in Digimon Story: Time Stranger is the In-Between theater. This is a space between the Digital World and the Normal World. Here, you can go to the Digifarm, go to any of the Outer Dungeons you have discovered, or even shop at a bar that has all the inventory of shops throughout the areas you have unlocked so far. If you are looking to buy something specific, it’s worthwhile to check out the bar.

The Digifarm makes a return, and in a much larger capacity than ever before. You can customize what the digifarm looks like by adding tiles of different terrains and even cosmetic objects you find throughout the game. You can also leave Digimon in the Digifarm and train them with a bunch of different training sets. These training sets generally focus on one core stat, but they also influence the personality of the Digimon. The personality of a Digimon affects its growth, but it also affects the buffs it gets from your agent rank.

Improvements For The Modern Era

Digimon Story titles were all previously built for handhelds, with the DS and later the PS Vita. This is the first time it is a full-on console game. Boy, does this look good. There are a lot of fantastic animations with Digimon moves and even the story cinematics. There are some issues with some of the Human world cities and the people in the background. Animations tend to dip in frames a lot in the background, and you can notice it. That said, it is only in the background, and the people aren’t the focus—it is the Digimon. It still took me out of the game, though, so I had to mention it.

You are not locked into Digivolving Digimon at the In-Between Theater. In prior Digimon Story games, you could only use the Digivolve function at certain locations. In Digimon Story: Time Stranger, you can Digivolve anywhere and everywhere. You also get a fun exclamation mark on the Digimon in the menu when a new Digivolution line is available. There will also be a ping on your DigiLine when it is available too. The DigiLine is very helpful in this game. When a Digimon is done training at the Digifarm, it will ping you. You can then decide to have them rerun the training as you are going through the game, so you don’t have to return to the In-Between Theater just to reset the training regimens.

There are a lot of areas that allow you to fast travel to specific locations. In the Digital World, fast travel locations are held at Birdramons, indicated by the feather icon. They can take you to certain locations on the map. In the Human World, you can fast travel in taxis and buses. The only sad thing about the Human World is that you can’t use Digimon to move faster. You have to use the slow run of the Agent. In the Digital World, you can ride Digimon to move faster, which is very nice. My favorite Digimon to have in my party was Blimpmon or Locomon, just using them as a way to go places faster.

Tying All The Threads Together

Digimon Story: Time Stranger is an amazing video game. It is the best Digimon game I have ever played. I loved the pacing, the progression, gathering Digimon, Digivolving Digimon, and learning about the world of Illiad. I also loved the difficulty and how guest Digimon were used in the story. If you are someone who has ever loved Digimon, this is a great title to grab. Also, if you are new to Digimon, this is a great entry point in case you haven’t watched any of the series or played any of the games. I am officially addicted and will be going back in a New Game+ run for Mega difficulty!

Digimon Story: Time Stranger will be released on October 3rd, 2025, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. You can also read our preview of the game from Anime Expo! There is also a demo available on all platforms.

Review Disclosure Statement: Digimon Story: Time Stranger was provided to us by Bandai Namco for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy.

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